00:01Hello and welcome to Nerdy Gaming with Rabid Beaver. I'm your host, the elusive Rabid Beaver.
00:06I hope each and every one of you guys are having a wonderful day in the world of gaming or
00:10wherever you guys are at.
00:12And thank you for joining me today in the beautiful comic book studios here in Cleveland, Tennessee.
00:18And I'd love to have each and every one of you hit that like, hit that follow, and hit that
00:22subscribe wherever you guys are seeing this at.
00:24Today, we're going to be talking about the state of gaming. Currently in 2026, the gaming industry is navigating a
00:31pivotal transition phase characterized by a post-pandemic market normalizing and revenizing revenue shifts along widespread studio layoffs and surging
00:43hardware costs.
00:44And what does this mean for you guys?
00:46Well, the consumer, basically, it means that the prices are going up and will continue to go up until you
00:55all have had enough.
00:57And one of the biggest resurgencies that we've seen is game pricing, not only hardware, but game pricing in general.
01:03And for instance, Grand Theft Auto 5 is getting scheduled to launch in November.
01:08Now, I don't know if it'll get pushed back again. This will be the third time that they've scheduled it
01:12to come out and it's been pushed if it does.
01:14But they're already starting to charge you for the base version, $89.
01:21The special edition version is $100 and it's a digital only game.
01:25There's no physical copy for you whatsoever to have.
01:28And why is that a big thing? It's because preservation.
01:31Sony has just proved with what's going on in the gaming industry that according to their movie platforms that they've
01:37got,
01:38anything that you've bought from 2008 until current, since the streaming software and license is not getting renewed, is going
01:48away.
01:49So it's a huge deal to you guys, the consumers, to have physical copies of everything.
01:55Because if they just decide tomorrow that you, the consumer, no longer have the rights to this game for whatever
02:02reason.
02:03So let's say Rockstar says, we're just not going to renew it.
02:05Unless you pay us an additional $30 million or $40 million for the license.
02:10Then you guys are going to be the ones who are getting screwed.
02:14So I think it's a big deal on why we need physicals.
02:19It's a big deal on why we fought to get disc drives in the PlayStation, you know, the PlayStation 4
02:26and 5.
02:28It's a huge deal.
02:30And I think it should continue to be a huge deal.
02:33Because I believe the media that you buy, you own the rights to it.
02:38You, the consumer, owns the rights to do with whatever you want with that media.
02:43If you want to copy it, you want to burn it, you want to do whatever to it.
02:45I think you own the right to that as your personal copy.
02:48You should have the right to have that copy be your copy.
02:51And with hardware, as we've seen, man, Microsoft has just gone crazy with pricing here the last couple of weeks.
02:59And PlayStation is even following suit going up with the pricing on their consoles.
03:05It's becoming a big shift into the PC market.
03:08I mean, PCs are becoming more and more valuable to have and cheaper to afford than most consoles in console
03:17market gaming currently.
03:19That's a hard place to be.
03:21If you are a company that is trying to make money through licensing and software and make money through your
03:29hardware, it's a hard place for you to be.
03:31But we have a huge resurgency right now in PC gaming.
03:35And Steam, with the Steam Deck, is killing it, knocking it out of the park.
03:39And I hate to say that, but it's just the truth.
03:41Direct consumer sales.
03:43Game publishers are breaking away from single market approach.
03:46Companies are increasingly focusing on direct-to-consumer sales to diversify distribution and distributing channels in retail for more revenue.
03:57And that's what I'm saying is instead of them having it go to a company like GameStop or them go
04:05to a company like Toys R Us when Toys R Us was in business or them go to Electronics Boutique
04:09when Electronics Boutique was in business or going to GameRave or any of those facilities that it normally would be
04:17sent to.
04:18It's going directly to the consumer through the marketplace on either PlayStation, the PlayStation Store, or on Xbox Store, the
04:27Xbox Live Store.
04:28It's going directly to you, the consumer, that way.
04:31And then they control it from that point in time forward, whatever happens to it.
04:35And I'll give you a perfect example of this.
04:38Batman, there's the Dark Knight series in the collection with the Arkham Knight series.
04:44I own that for multiple consoles.
04:48And on the Xbox One here recently, they decided not to let the license go through.
04:54So it gave me the triangle.
04:56Popped up at the bottom, had the triangle listed up.
04:59So I had to click on it and find out what was going on.
05:01I already own it, but it's not letting me download it or letting me play that game.
05:05And that's because the license had ran out and I had to rebuy the license for it.
05:10So why am I having to buy the license over and over and over when I already own the license
05:15for it?
05:16When I already play the game, when I already have it, I already have it in my library.
05:22That's the fear that I've got for all of us in gaming today.
05:26Because I fear that we're going into a place where if we don't watch it, the media that we consume,
05:32we will not own.
05:33Not only will we not own it, we will not be able to play it.
05:36We will not be able to distribute it to the world like through a streaming service like Twitch or YouTube
05:42or, you know, Trovo or Kick or any of them, Facebook, any of them.
05:46You won't be able to put it out there to any of those places and you guys will just be
05:51stuck with what you have that's physical and physical media.
05:54That will be the only type that you will be able going forward to actually play in stream.
06:02And it's already started.
06:03Some of the games on PlayStation 4 would actually cut off scenes and say, this thing cannot be recorded.
06:08This thing cannot do this.
06:09This thing cannot do that.
06:11Because it was not listed or copyrighted.
06:14And I fear that that's going to be what's going to be happening going forward is whenever you start your
06:18game, you start to put it out there.
06:20You start to push it on a capture card and start to let it go.
06:23That it's going to hit the HDPC, which is high definition protection.
06:28For those of you that don't know, it'll hit the HDPC encoders.
06:31And they're going to automatically block that game from being streamed live.
06:39And I know that that's kind of a wild stance and a wild statement to take.
06:44But we're currently in that state of gaming where if they're no longer going to provide physicals for you to
06:50have, that's the next step.
06:53And in order for you to do it, they're going to want you to pay a streaming service or pay
06:58for their streaming service on their platform.
07:00And I don't think that's the right way to go.
07:02I think a streaming service should be provided through the platform, just like it is now currently.
07:08But people are not in the business of making you happy.
07:13They're in the business of making money.
07:15And what doesn't make sense to you?
07:17Is it going to make sense to them?
07:18And it's definitely not going to make dollars if it makes sense to you because they don't care what you
07:23want.
07:23They only care what they want and what they want to have.
07:28So I guess what I'm trying to say is it's important right now that we all band together,
07:33especially with new games getting ready to be released, new games coming out, new games actually happening on the daily,
07:39that we are prepared to see more physical discs come out.
07:44And we all need to band together right now for the physicals to come out.
07:47Now, I have a massive, massive digital collection, but everything I have digitally, I have backed up with physicals.
07:56If I can't put it on a physical, I can't put it, I won't buy it digitally.
08:02It just won't happen.
08:03Even if it's for a different console, I have that game in my collection for a physical reason.
08:11Things I own on PlayStation 3, I also own on PlayStation 4, I also own on PlayStation 5, I also
08:18own on Xbox,
08:20and Xbox One, and Xbox Series S, and Xbox Series X.
08:24So I make sure that I have a physical copy of everything that I purchase because I want to be
08:30able to preserve it in the future
08:32and be able to use it in the future as needed.
08:34Or if I want to resell it, you can't resell a code, guys.
08:38What are you going to do with it?
08:39You own the game, you own the license to it for a short period of time.
08:42They cut it out, now you can't sell it.
08:44You can't play it.
08:44You can't do anything with it.
08:47These are valid questions you have to ask if you're in the gaming industry and if you're going to be
08:51moving forward in the gaming industry.
08:54What do we do from here and where do we go from here and how can we make gaming a
08:59better place?
09:01Hey, if you like what you see today, don't forget to hit that like, hit that follow, and hit that
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09:11time we're doing this
09:11or anytime that we post a video for you guys.
09:15All right, that's my two cents for the day, guys.
09:18I just wanted to get this little rant out and get it to you.
09:20I hope you all have a good day in the world of gaming or wherever you guys are at,
09:24and I hope in the future we all can band together and have more physical games
09:30and be able to play more physical games and be able to come just like it was old school when
09:33we were growing up.
09:34Four people to a room, all on the same screen, chilling it out.
09:38We're having LAN parties, baby.
09:40We had LAN parties back in the day where we brought everybody in and we put it all together.
09:44I hope that we can get back to those days again soon and definitely have the best time in gaming.
09:49Bring back the glory days of gaming, free internet for gaming.
09:54I don't think that we should be able to, we should be paying for the internet for the services.
10:00It's already provided whenever we buy a disc.
10:03So PlayStation 3 proved that, that we could do it.
10:07Not only that, but Dreamcast proved that we could do it.
10:10We can do it again.
10:11Let's make gaming a better place for everybody.
10:14Let's make sure that gaming stays golden for the next generation to come
10:19so that whenever they're ready,
10:21they know that we fought for something that was purposeful in this life.
10:28Not only purposeful, but brings joy to so many human beings.
10:32We can do it again.
10:34Let's do it again, guys.
10:36I will see you guys later.
10:39Bye, guys.
